Ashes and Embers

Darkness. Cold. The stench of burning flesh.

Rendrik's eyes snapped open. His breath was now shallow, unaware of the weight pressing down on his ribs. For a moment, he didn't know where he was--all he knew was that he wasn't dead.

Not yet at least.

Pain stormed through his entire body the moment he shifted under the wreckage of the pulverized vehicle. How he had gotten there was unknown to him. However, his proverbial instincts insisted that he was exactly where he needed to be.

Outstretched to the right side of the vehicle, his fingers clawed against the dirt, feeling the rough surface, searching until it found the sticky and wet substance. Blood--his own and, perhaps, others'.

'What... happened?'

His thoughts felt slow, yet manic, dragging like his body was still caught somewhere between waking and unconsciousness. It was all a dazed mess, nothing that really felt solid. Until, suddenly, the memories came flooding back, all at once.

The convoy.

The ambush.

Drevan.

Kael.

'Oh no. Kael. Where is Kael? Last thing I remember--he was right behind me, then... then--fuck! I don't remember, I can't remember a thing after that, dammit!'

It was all so overwhelming that his chest heaved without his permission. He gritted his teeth against the pain and forced himself to listen.

The sound of flesh tearing.

A sickening, wet crunch.

A low faint, screeching noise followed by the shuffling of many feet.

Slowly--carefully--Rendrik shifted his head just enough to avoid pain--just enough to see.

'They're still here? The Lesser Hollows."

The creatures moved through the wreckage like starving wolves, as they just may have been before their Hollowfication, picking apart the corpses of his fallen unit. Their bone-white flesh glowed faintly under the residual light of the set Hollow Sun, their elongated jaws tearing into the bodies without hesitation.

'A dozen? Maybe more.'

He'd thought he spoke the words, but his throat had gone dry long before his wake. So, instead, the words remained nothing but a thought.

But now, the sun was completely down. Without it, his powers were severely weakened, and that meant he would have to avoid a fight, by any means possible. While he thrived on his stubbornness, even he knew fighting in his current condition wasn't just reckless--it was crazed and suicide. And the very moment they would notice him--he would be dead before he ever saw it coming.

Rendrik bit back his panic and forced himself still.

'The wreckage above me is just enough cover to keep me out of sight. I have to wait and buy some time, at least until some of my wounds heal or else I won't live to see the Hollow Sun, ironic isn't it.'

His Pyro-Restore ability was already working, knitting his muscles, sealing his surprisingly already reassembled torso, but it was slow. Too slow. He needed more time--minutes. Maybe an hour.

'Can I really afford to wait that long? Even if all of my wounds completely heal, I'd probably be too weak still, too weak to feel anything-anything at all if I stay here too long.'

After a moment, he took a slow yet panicked breath through his nose. Then, he started to think, about it all.

'How long had I been unconscious? Minutes? Hours? Maybe a full day? What exactly happened that evening?'

His mind felt like it had been ripped apart and stitched back together incorrectly. The details were hazy and fractured, fleeting at best. He remembered Kael's body collapsing, but after that, nothing.

Slowly, Rendrik scanned the wreckage.

Bodies. So many bodies. Some unrecognizable, twisted beyond human form due to what the Hollows had done. Others were partially intact, their armor torn open and their faces still frozen in fear. But one particular body was missing.

Kael's.

A flicker of something--relief, perhaps confusion--rose in his chest. Then--there was movement.

One of the Lesser Hollows dragged something forward. It was a lifeless arm clamped within its jaws. Finally, the corpse slid into the moonlight, illuminated by the faint red glow of burning debris.

For a horrifying second, he thought it might look like Kael. Then his mind caught up.

It wasn't Kael. It was Know-it-all.

The girl who had spoken during the briefing so confidently. The girl who had died screaming.

Rendrik let out a slow controlled breath through his teeth. The relief that followed was immediate. And then, just as fast, came the guilt.

'What the hell is wrong with me? Is this what survival does? Make me grateful that someone else has been torn apart instead?'

In response to his own self doubt, his fingers curled against the dirt, and his eyes jostled shut.

'I don't have time for this!'

The wind shifted. A low hiss of static crackled through the air. Then, Rendrik's body went rigid.

'A communications device?'

One of the wrecked convoy vehicles still had power. The system must have automatically rebooted, attempting to reconnect with a signal. It wasn't loud, but in the silence, surrounded by predators, it was deafening.

A Hollow's head snapped up. Then another. Then--all of them.

The feeding stopped. The Lesser Hollows turned, one by one, toward the wreckage. Toward him.

Rendrik's entire body locked in place.

'Shit! Don't look over here! Keep eating... What's-her-name!'

Then, one of them twitched. It's body convulsed as its spine arched unnaturally. A horrible, wet crack sounded as its limbs lengthened and its postured shifted.

At the sight of it, Rendrik's breath stalled.

'No. No, that's not possible. Hollows don't evolve.'

Yet, the Hollow was changing--and right before his eyes too. It's bones snapped, and reformed in a different position. Its once-mindless expression shifted, and its glowing, pupil-less eyes gained--intelligence, maybe awareness.

The Lesser Hollow wasn't just a Lesser hollow anymore. It was becoming--

'A Hunter!'

For the first time in history--a Hollow was seen leveling up.

Rendrik held his breath. Rather, he couldn't breathe all together. His thoughts were spiraling too fast. Hollows didn't evolve. At least, they weren't known to.

Then--

The Hunter's new, elongated skull snapped toward him. It hadn't been looking at him before. But now? Now it knew.

And soon it jolted for him.